The present invention relates to an orthodontic bracket and a method of manufacturing the same in which a bonding pattern is formed by irradiating a laser beam onto a base face of the orthodontic bracket that a machining process has been completed, and the bonding pattern formed on the base face is coated with an adhesive for attachment to teeth, thereby allowing the adhesive for attachment to teeth to firmly hold the orthodontic bracket on, and at the same time significantly reducing the processing time that takes to process the base surface for enabling for the adhesive to hold the orthodontic bracket on thereby enabling the mass production of the orthodontic bracket of high quality.
In general, orthodontics means correcting dental abnormalities and should be targeted at an abnormality in the tissue around teeth, which causes poor alignment of the teeth, and includes adjusting an abnormality in occlusion in addition to the abnormality in the teeth alignment and correcting the so-called malocclusion such as prognathism of upper teeth and lower teeth.
The orthodontics uses braces for gradually moving teeth to correct the position of the tooth. The braces include brackets for straightening of irregular teeth and a wire having elasticity. In the braces, the bracket for straightening of irregular teeth is securely attached to a tooth face of a correction target tooth and the wire is fixed to the attached brackets for straightening of irregular teeth. The direction and magnitude of a force exerted on the arch wire can be adjusted variously by adjusting tension exerted on the arch wire, and the target teeth for treatment can be moved gradually while the direction and magnitude thereof is adjusted. The target teeth changes in its posture and position by the tension of the arch wire, and gradually moves little by little accordingly, thereby the orthodontics is made.
Korean Patent No. 0862631 as an example of such an orthodontic bracket discloses a method of manufacturing an orthodontic bracket for use in orthodontics, which is formed therein with a slot at one side thereof and an attaching face attached to a teeth face at the other side thereof, the attaching face of the bracket is provided with a lower portion to which polymer powders melted are attached so that an adhesive permeates gaps formed at lower ends of the polymer powders, wherein 20% to 30% of the polymer powders welded on the attaching face of the bracket is melted and welded on the attaching face and the wetting angle thereof is at 50° to 70°. The method includes a processing step in which a slot is formed at one side thereof and a bracket is formed with a attaching face at the other side thereof; a transparency diluting step of diluting a transparency thereof by abrasive blasting so that the reflectance of the bracket formed through the processing step is lowered; a powder welding step of welding the polymer powders onto the attaching face of the bracket formed through the processing step so that the adhesive permeates the gaps of the polymer powders welded on the bracket thereby maximizing adhesive efficiency.
Further, Korean Patent No. 1016416 discloses an orthodontic bracket for attaching a wire for exerting a force on tooth so that the teeth moves to a desired position, including a bracket body fixed to the wire and a detachably attaching means that is coupled to the bracket body and detachably attached to a teeth surface.
Further, Korean Patent No. 660646 discloses an orthodontic bracket including a main body being attached to tooth, a slot formed on one side of the main body to receive a wire, a coating layer formed on an opposite side of the main body, and a groove formed between the main body and the coating layer to increase the amount of coating material.
Further, Korean Patent No. 0763315 discloses an orthodontic bracket using an arch wire, including a bracket base fixed to a tooth surface, and a wire holder that is detachably mounted to the bracket base and fixed securely to the arch wire, wherein the arch wire is adjusted to exert a force on the tooth thereby moving the teeth to a predetermined position, and then solidly fixed to the wire holder.
The orthodontic bracket, which has been disclosed in Korean Patent No. 0763315 the inventor of which is the same as in the present invention, is provided with a coating layer for further improving an attachment force to an attachment surface. To make the coating layer formed on the attachment surface of the bracket, however, the process for the formation of the coating layer should include many complex steps such as coating alumina powder of more than 85% purity on the attachment surface of the orthodontic bracket, heating the bracket coated with alumina up to 1500° C.˜1700° C. and then maintaining the upper most point of the heating temperature during 10˜30 minutes, maintaining the attachment surface of the bracket coated with alumina at the upper most point of the temperature during 10˜30 minutes and then leaving the bracket at a room temperature during a predetermined time to thereby cool the bracket, when the coating layer of alumina as an attachment surface of the bracket is formed after leaving the bracket at the room temperature during the predetermined time, checking the bracket to detect any defective coating layer of the bracket as to whether the coating layer of alumina is stably formed on the attachment surface of the bracket or whether the bracket is changed in its shape due to high temperature heating, and attaching the bracket to the teeth surface using a bonding material if the coating layer of alumina is formed on the attachment surface of the bracket through the detection process, etc. thus there are problems that the whole operation becomes very complex and it takes much time to manufacture the bracket.